Why Colocate To An Omaha Data Center

When big companies think of colocation data centers, they’re probably thinking of 60 Hudson St in New York City or One Wilshire in Los Angeles, California. Where else should they be thinking? Why, Omaha, Nebraska, of course.

Omaha? What’s in Omaha? Well, billionaire Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha”, and his legendary Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate holding company. That’s just one of five Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Omaha. In fact, Forbes magazine has called Omaha the nation’s number one “Best-Bang-For-The-Buck City.” More to the data center point, Omaha is home to the Scott Data Center complex.

Scott Data Center offers over 110,000 square feet of data storage facilities. It has been continually operating since 2006 and is currently just one of two multi-tenant data centers in the United States to achieve Tier III Certification for both design and construction. This certification was awarded by the Uptime Institute, an industry organization focused on improving data center performance and efficiency. They award tier certifications in 26 different countries. Tier III facilities support critical business applications.

One of the newest tenants is Level 3 Communications, the worldwide telecommunications carrier for voice, data, and video. Level 3 is deploying a new enterprise-grade data center within the Scott Data Center complex. It will join more than 350 Level 3 data center facilities in North America, Europe and Latin America. You can select the level of service you require, including the Premier Elite facilities, such as the new Level 3 Omaha data center. All of these data centers are connected via Level 3’s 165,000 intercity, metro and subsea fiber route miles that provide low latency access to corporate assets around the world.

But, still, why Omaha? The fact that Omaha is located in the center of the United States is an asset when it comes to disaster prevention and recovery. If you are insistent on avoiding a situation that wipes out your headquarters building and takes all of your IT facilities with it, you need redundant data centers that are geographically diverse. Keeping everything in one building is efficient, but it is risky for floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. A separate facility across town is one step better. A facility someplace else in the country that doesn’t have the same risks is better yet.

Omaha isn’t subject to earthquakes and certainly not likely to be a victim of any coastal tsunamis. The Scott Data center design protects it from any potential seismic activity. It is elevated out of the flood plain to avoid any issues with an overflowing Missouri River. Yes, tornadoes can be an issue in the MidWest, but the Scott facility can withstand 250+ mph winds and the uplift of tornado level winds.

There are also financial advantages to locating in Omaha. Electrical power is available and costs well below the national average. You know that data centers are power intensive, both for equipment operation and cooling. There are also pricing and tax incentives that make Omaha an attractive place to build an expensive and sophisticated facility like a data center.

By the way, Scott Data Center meets the security requirements of the Department of Defense. That includes a 24/7 security desk, gated perimeter, dual authentication, surveillance cameras, barrier wall, man-traps, biometrics, generator backup and redundant cooling. Think your equipment and data will be safe? You think right.

Are you thinking about relocating your data center or establishing a complementary or alternative colocation facility to current coastal locations? Get features and pricing on colocation data center facilities available in Omaha and nationwide to meet your business needs.



Photo of Omaha skyline courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Managed Security Moves To The Cloud

When cloud services are discussed, it’s most often Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, or Software as a Service. You can now add Security as a Service to the list. Integra is offering a suite of Cloud Security Services, starting with Cloud Firewall Service.

Managed security is attractive to many companies that don’t have full time IT staff or don’t want to get into the acquisition and maintenance of their own security appliances. Instead, they buy this service by the month with the provider installing a security device on the premises. Security in the cloud is a bit different. Not only do you not have to make the capital investment in security hardware or maintain it, but the hardware is invisible to you as well.

Integra Telecom is uniquely positioned to provide this type of cloud security because they are both a facilities based telecom carrier as well as a cloud services provider. Most providers are in one business or the other. The advantage of this dual role becomes apparent when you see just how the security is being accomplished. Integra builds a firewall between the public Internet and your network. What’s different is that they do this off in the cloud, not at the edge of your LAN. A major advantage is that you can also include your VPN or VPNs and MPLS network connections between business locations behind that firewall.

The actual security component is a Palo Alto Networks Enterprise Firewall. Their solution is a rack mounted appliance that supports firewall throughput up to 10 Gbps with up to 4,000,000 sessions and 20,000 SSL VPN users. You could buy one of these and install it in your own data center, but you can gain the benefit without the management headaches by letting Integra do this for you in their cloud.

Integra’s Cloud Firewall Service goes beyond mere port blocking for network protection. Their solution is application aware so it can block unauthorized traffic based on policies for a particular application. Application visibility, control and reporting is part of the standard level of service designed for smaller organizations. The mid-level “plus” service adds intrusion detection and protection, URL filtering, policy customization, report customization, and an optional VPN client for remote users. The premium level of Cloud Firewall Service adds network anti-virus and anti-spyware protection along with file and data content filtering.

Like many cloud services, this firewall service offers the opportunity to increase the protection of your network while reducing the total cost of ownership. Is it any wonder that the cloud is moving in to envelop just about every business? There are also advantages for smaller companies to assure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements without having to staff up a separate security department.

When considering managed security, it is well worth your while to take a systems approach that treats network security as tightly integrated with public and private network connections. Integra is well versed and equipped to provide connectivity as simple as dedicated Internet access and complex as private multi-site converged voice, video and data networks.

Could your business benefit from managed network security in the cloud? Why not get competitive pricing and options for cloud services that make sense for the requirements of your particular organization? Then see if doing it yourself still makes more sense.

How Telarus GeoScan Finds Better Network Deals

The nation’s premier telecom brokerage service, Telarus, Inc., is introducing an advanced telecom carrier research tool to its family of proprietary software-based services. The new GeoScan enables Telarus consultants to better search and refine carrier service offerings for clients. By making the search and evaluation process more sophisticated, Telarus agents can ferret out the closest matching offers for a particular set of applications.

Why is such a tool needed? After all, the patented GeoQuote process already leads the industry in its ability to find and organize dozens of competing services from a plethora of carriers. What’s happened is an embarrassment of riches for Telarus. As the company’s reputation has grown in the industry, more and more carriers have requested to be included in the Telarus search results. On top of that, the telecom industry itself is undergoing a major transformation from switched circuit services to packet switched networks worldwide.

Within the last few years, the venerable T1 line, DS3 connection, and SONET/SDH fiber optic carriers have been challenged by Metro Ethernet services with scalable bandwidths from 3 Mbps through 10 Gbps. Include SIP trunking, wireless last mile links, and MPLS networks and you have an order of magnitude, at least, multiplication in the variety of service offerings available to businesses and organizations. It’s a deluge of options that can easily overwhelm the time-honored quote methods used by most telecom agents.

Telarus saw this coming when they refined their GeoQuote system to electronically connect with carrier databases and then assemble a list of appropriate quotes instantly. But a database connection can deliver a fire hose stream of data that’s hard to analyze at a glance for the best opportunities. That’s where the value of GeoScan shines. With this additional tool, Telarus agents can specify parameters such as the max MRC per location, the type of product and term for each circuit. That allows them to mine the data to find the particular service deals that are exact matches to a customer’s requirements.

Today’s business environment is more highly focused on productivity than ever before. That’s resulting in more sophisticated computer processes linking an ever increasing number of physical locations including overseas offices and factories. To keep up, telecom service providers have to step up their own processes to quickly analyze a prospective customer's needs and generate accurate quotes. They also need to be able to rapidly modify options to try “what ifs” and deal with a customer’s dynamically changing requirements.

This is where Telarus shines as the next generation of telecom brokers. They have the tools to tackle large and complex situations and the carrier relationships to offer the best-fit solutions available. This process scales from small businesses such as insurance or real estate offices up through major medical centers and Fortune 500 companies. The tools and the consultants can service any serious business opportunity that comes their way.

Could your company benefit from a complementary review of your voice, data and video networking needs? It’s free, of course, and you’ll likely be surprised by the variety of service options that you didn’t even know exist. Why not give it a try? Take just a minute and tell Telarus about your applications. It will be well worth your while.

XO Offering Ethernet to the World

Step right up, telecommunications carriers worldwide. Here's your chance to access 4 million commercial buildings in the United States to offer your services via Ethernet. All this is available to you thanks to the new Ethernet Hub service from XO communications.

"Yaaawwwwn," you say? As a business telecom services user, what do you care what one carrier offers another? Well, there's good reason for you to care. But if, and only if, you are interested in saving money on your voice and data service leases.

I thought that might get your attention. To understand how you may benefit, you need to see what's hidden within the recent XO Ethernet Hub press release. The devilish savings, if I may coin a phrase, are in the details.

XO Communications is what is called a competitive carrier. That means that they were never part of the incumbent local exchange carriers, what's become of the old Bell Telephone system. This is a relatively new telecom carrier, but it's still a billion dollar company with over 4,000 employees. What's more impressive is that their nationwide network is all new technology, with about a million miles of metro fiber, 18,000 miles of fiber between cities, and 75 markets with wireless services available.

That's not the profile of your stodgy old telecom, and it is why XO has something to offer other carriers who look wistfully at the massive Carrier Ethernet presence that XO has established for itself. That presence includes those 4 million commercial buildings, each reachable for Ethernet service.

Ethernet WAN service, also called Carrier Ethernet or Metro Ethernet, offers a way to extend your corporate network across town or across the country with a minimum of technical fuss and bother. It uses the familiar Ethernet protocol that you're already proficient with. Ethernet service prices are exceptionally low because there are no legacy telcos providing the "last mile" access the way you expect when ordering SONET or T-Carrier voice and data services.

XO's Ethernet bandwidth options range from 5 Mbps all the way up to 10 Gbps. The higher bandwidth options require fiber optic terminations, but it's possible to get lower tier speeds delivered via EoC or Ethernet over Copper. If fiber construction costs are too high and you are located within a couple miles of a XO Point of Presence, EoC can connect you to their network using the already-installed copper pairs that terminate in your building.

Now you've got an idea why XO Communications is perfectly suited to be your next service provider. The next step is to check out typical Ethernet service pricing and find out what bandwidth and costs savings are available for your business.

Thirty Carriers, No Waiting

Are you so flummoxed by your telecom services carrier that you can't see straight? Are you suffering gastrointestinal pains from the feelings of being trapped by your local phone company or the ISP that kinda, sorta provides you with dedicated Internet access? Does you monthly service bill induce all-day migraines?

Yes? Well, why are you putting up with that? You certainly don't have to anymore. The pain that comes with being boxed in by monopolistic service providers is best relieved by having lots and lots of choices for voice and data communications services. How would you like access to 30, count 'em, thirty business grade carriers offering everything from telephone trunk lines to wireless and satellite broadband access?

ISDN PRI telephone trunks for your PBX telephone system? Yes!

MPLS networks to connect all your branch offices together? Yes!

Gigabit Ethernet connections that enable you to transmit radiology images and high definition video in real time? Yes!

Pretty much everything you need in the way of business telecommunications services is not only available, but offered by two or more competing carriers that are hungry for your business. That includes newer services like SIP trunking and Metro Ethernet, along with established services such as T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth, SONET fiber optic rings, Frame Relay, dedicated point to point data connections, and server collocation.

Now, if there was only a fast and easy way to compare service offerings and prices from all these carriers...

Ah, that's the best part. What really makes it possible for small businesses to large corporate enterprises to deal with this wealth of opportunity is a brokerage service that acts as a single point of contact for all of them. That service is exactly what has been developed over the past few years by Telarus, Inc. Telarus has developed a suite of computerized tools, corporate staff, expert consultants and agents that makes it easy for IT managers and business owners to painlessly evaluate specific quotes from a multitude of service providers and pick the solution that makes the most sense.

Your entree to this complimentary pricing and consulting service is through the online search portals at Shop For T1, Shop For Ethernet,Shop for SIP Trunking and similar "Shop For" sites. You'll also find inquiry forms on our sites at T1 Rex, Mega Trunks, Enterprise VoIP, and GigaPackets, to name a few.

All of these portals get you to the same place, so go ahead and enter an inquiry at any of them. Just describe your business need in a few words to give the consulting team an idea of what you need. They'll call you at your convenience to review appropriate services, including special offers with such niceties as free routers, free installation, and burstable bandwidth. If you'd rather talk to someone immediately, just call the toll free number and extension shown on any of the sites.

Who are these 30 carriers that Telarus represents? They range from regional service providers to well known national carriers such as ACC Business, AireSpring, AT&T, Cavalier, Covad, Level3, MegaPath, Network Innovations, NewEdge Networks, Nuvox, PAETEC, One Communications, PowerNet Global, Qwest, TelePacific, Telnes, Time Warner Telecom, UCN, and XO Communications.

You won't pay a cent extra to let Telarus act as your broker to negotiate the best rates from the carrier and service level of your choice. There is no charge to you for any of the Telarus consulting services and the service rates you pay are as good as you'd get if you showed up on the carrier's doorstep and negotiated your best deal.

An additional service that you'll find valuable is the VAR Network. This is a database of business telephone and networking service businesses who are value added resellers of equipment for such companies as Avaya, Cisco, ShoreTel, Polycom, 3Com, Lucent, Nortel and many others. These local, regional, and national telecom businesses will sell you the equipment you need and even install hardware and wiring as needed. With a simple inquiry, you'll get one more responses from dealers in your area who specialize in what you need.

Negotiating T1 Line Prices

Your T1 line contract is expiring soon, or perhaps you are going out to contract for your first T1 lease to support a PBX telephone system or business broadband connection. So, how do you negotiate with the carriers to get the best deal?

Unless you are an expert at this, the best advise is don't do it. Oh, it seems easy enough. Just open the phone book, find telecommunications service providers and set them to bidding against each other. Or, if that's too much work then simply call up the telephone company and tell them you want a discount off their price list.

If you take the do-it-yourself approach, you may feel like you've gotten the best market price through crafty negotiation. But, have you? Not likely. The reason is that you'll probably deal with only one or a few providers. They'll have the upper hand because, as a single business, you have limited leverage. You may also not know to ask about possible cost savings options such as fractional T1 service, Integrated voice and data or Metro Ethernet.

Here's a better idea. Let an expert do your negotiating for you at no charge. So how do you hire a consultant who won't bill you and arm and a leg per hour or charge a fee based on how much you order? There's an entire group of them available through the Shop For T1 service at T1 Rex. They won't charge you a penny to help you find the best deal on the telecom services you need. What's more, the contract price you'll pay will be as good or better than you can do yourself. Likely much better because they have access to over a dozen carriers and services that include T1, PRI, DS3, OCx, Ethernet, Satellite, and Wireless service options.

In addition to technical and marketing experience in the telecommunications field, the Shop For T1 consultants have access to patented search software that lets them quickly query carrier databases to compare rates applicable for your business location. As master agents, they also have access to the latest special discount offers from each carrier and know how soon they expire. If you have special circumstances or multiple locations that might each need a different optimized solution, the consultants can work with their carrier representatives to put together a unique service package for you.

You can get in this valuable service right now, without having to spend a penny or take more than a few minutes out of your day. Simply enter your needs into the GeoQuote (tm) search form at T1 Rex and get a quick online quote in a matter of seconds. A Shop For T1 consultant will be happy to discuss the results and let you know of any special deals that might also be applicable.

Doesn't really make sense to go it alone, does it?